Kruger National Park Day 1 and 2 Bloemfontein to Numbi Gate and Pretoriuskop

2014-06-29 | puppy1952

We are back from another amazing sojourn in The Kruger National Park. I have hundreds of photographs providing wonderful memories and will be going through them and posting some on this blog in the week or so.

Sunday 29 June 2014 Bloemfontein to Numbi Gate and Pretriouskop Rest Camp

We left Bloemfontein at 5 a.m. after a very comfortable night at Duinerus. Thanks to Magriet for her fantastic hospitality. The weather was clear and sunny though a little chilly for the first few hours. We stopped at Grasmere for breakfast and met some people with a CS number plate. They were from Bredasdorp and on their way to Kruger and Mozambique.

We decided to do our shopping at Middleberg Mall just off the freeway instead of Nelspruit and that proved to be a good idea as it had Woolworths and we were done in no time! The arrival at Numbi at 3:00 went smoothly. We had to fill out an indemnity at the gate and then went through reception very quickly. We then travelled the S3 and our first sighting was a fork-tailed drongo – very common in the park. Shortly after we stopped off at Mestel Dam. There was a pod of hippo basking in the sun. Earl wanted to leave straight away but I insisted he turn off the engine and watch and wait. Within minutes we found a fish eagle, darter, pied king fisher, giant kingfisher, jacana, and black crake. The thing about waterholes is that things can change so quickly. We even got to hear the fish eagles iconic African call.

First of many hippos seen this trip

We were quite tired after our two days of travelling so did not do a long game drive. We found grey hornbills and then Peter alerted us to waterbuck and kudu in the bush.

What are you doing in my park?

A target on your bottom is quite something to live with!

We then turned onto the S7 and Heather called Stop when she spotted a burchels coucal posing in a tree. Shortly after that we found some glossy starlings and more drongos.

Burchell’s Coucal

On the H 1 Earl spotted a single warthog grazing in the dry grass. At the Pretoriouskop day visitor picnic site we found impala with oxpeckers giving them a beauty treatment.

You really must take care of these ears!

Three lovely waterbuck appeared just before Pretoriouskop entrance and a group of 4 dwarf mongoose darted across the road before we finally entered the gate at 4:30 Checking in went smoothly and we were delighted to move into to Huts 130 and 131 . We dined on braaied chops, sweet potatoes and salad an spent the evening outdoors in beautiful weather. It only got cold at around 9 pm

Relaxing on the stoep of our rondawel

Cheers my love

Our own personal chef

We also brought our own personal window cleaner!

Monday 30 June 2014 Pretoriouskop

We made an early start this morning and exited the gate just after 06h00. It was still dark but it was not as chilly as we’d anticipated. It gets light suddenly here and the sunrises are magnificent.
This sunrise with a giraffe silhouetted in the foreground typifies Africa for me.

This is Africa

The first leg of our journey took us along the H1-1. We turned off onto the s71 to Shithave Dam where there was very little besides a grey heron and a pied kingfisher.
Back on the H1-1 we found giraffe, zebra and kudu. The highlight of the morning was a beautiful brown snake eagle perched atop a tee. Snake Eagles are not true eagles as their feathers do not go down to their feet – only to the knees. Most snake eagles have yellow eyes.

Brown Snake-Eagle

We also spent ages observing a party of birds flitting about in the bushes. Seeing us stopped and staring into the bush caused a number of cars to enquire as to what exciting creature we had seen. They tore off in a puff of dust when we tried to point out an interesting bird or 2. Many people visit the park for the Big 5 and other predators and as excting as it is to see them I get more of a thrill out of the small things in Kruger. One can travel the roads for hours and not see a thing if you don’t take note of the birds and other small things.

At 9 we arrived at Transport Dam where a pod of hippos were frolicking, a few jacanas were walking in the water plants, a crake made an appearance, water dikkop sunned themselves and hornbills and lapwings begged tidbits from the tourists!
Continuing further were shaken from a reverie when we spotted a roadblock up ahead. A herd of elephants were refusing to allow the cars to pass. One mock charged a car and then swerved into the bush probably giggling and elephant laugh as the occupants breathed a sigh of relief.
A special sighting thereafter was a little Klipspringer staring at us silently from his rocky perch.

Klipspringers are incredibly nimble on rocks.

A Kruger Road Block!

Klipspringers are incredibly nimble on rocks

We stopped at Afsaal for breakfast at about 11. It was quite warm now and we sat in the shade to enjoy our toasted sandwiches and coffee. Afsaal is one of the larger picnic sites which has a kiosk providing meals and good coffee can be obtained. We prefer the smaller picnic sites where they do not have shops etc but Kruger draws thousands of tourists and they must be fed!

Afsaal

We went a little further past Afsaal before turning back to Pretoriouskop. A pile of cars were staring into the bush where leopard had been seen but we didn’t bother to wait for the phantom to appear. We enjoyed sightings of giraffe, zebra, warthog and a few more bird parties and arrived back at camp at 3.

Beautiful Model

She’s on a leaf and thorn diet

Hello Boys!

Brown hooded kingfisher

Hamerkop

Longbilled Crombec

Yellow-billed Hornbills

After shopping, getting and ice cream and resting for a while we explored the camp and found some lovely birds in the pool area.

We were delighted to find a crested barbet, black headed oriole and red-billed woodhoepoe. In front of our hut we also found a Kurrichane Thrush.

Crested Barbet

Black Headed Oriole

Red-billed woodhoepoe with bug

Kurrichane Thrush

Supper was an early braai. Earl went to be very early and the rest of us chatted outdoors for a while before turning in for the night. We do not keep late hours in Kruger!

Image

Kruger National Park Getting There

Since booking for The Kruger National Park a year ago, I have visited Europe and Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed both those exciting trips but there is nothing to beat a holiday in the bush and having missed out on such a trip last year I was beside myself anticipating this trip to Kruger. Everything was packed and ready and our travelling companions slept over at our house last night and the adventure began at 4:30 this morning. If we thought it was a chilly start we were to get a shock when we hit the Karoo and got out at Laingsburg for breakfast. It was 0 degrees C! Our Wimpy breakfast warmed us and were back into our warm Caravelle enjoying the sunshine warming us through the windows while we pointed out black shouldered kites, pale chanting goshawks, rock kestrels and other birds. We enjoyed the dry, khaki terrain and low mountains and koppies too. Uploading photographs in areas where the coms are slow and reliable is going to be slow and frustrating so I am not going to do a daily blog of this trip. We are overnighting in a lovely B&B, Duinerus, in Bloemfontein. Margriet provides us with tea, coffee, milk, rusks and the ingredients for breakfast. We ordered pizza for our evening meal and will be off to Kruger early tomorrow – hopefully arriving at Numbi Gate before 4 o’clock. I will save my reports in draft and upload the photos when I return in 3 weeks time and publish them a day at time then, unless by some strange miracle I get good coms in some of the camps! I leave you now with just one through the windscreen pic of The Three Sisters

Back in the Classroom End of Term

2014-06-28 | puppy1952

The last week went well. Next term our books have feint lines. Now that we have mastered the essentials of letter formation, our teachers go and confuse us and tell us we now have to touch the lines and fill the spaces! To get us ready for this we have been working on paper so that our mistakes don’t spoil our lovely new books! The teachers call it suicide week but we are very tolerant of them and try hard to get it right before they burst into tears. Teachers are so sensitive and we wouldn’t want to disappoint them would we.
Our teacher has been a bit preoccupied this past week as she has had to get herself organised for her trip to Kruger National Park. Anyway she managed to teach us well enough, told our parents all about our talents at Parentline on Tuesday night and did some other stuff that teachers do at terms’ end – can’t imagine what but hopefully she will have her head together when we see her next term! We hugged her hard when we left on Friday and said we would really miss her. We saw a tear in her eye so perhaps she will miss us too.
She hasn’t got any photos for this blog as she is on the road to Kruger but we guess she will return with renewed energy next term. So moms and dads, have a great holiday with us kids, do lots of fun thing and remember to read with and to us!

Back in the Classroom – Term 2 Winding Down – Preparing for Term 3

2014-06-20 | puppy1952

Grade One as I have said many times in these blogs, is the most rewarding class to teach. Watching the little ones grow and absorb knowledge like a sponge absorbs water is a daily thrill. At term’s end there is no letting up – they do not want to stop – they need to be in a routine and want to continue the learning! So every activity we present must have a purpose – there is no doing anything just for the sake of it or to keep them occupied!

So while we continue with the normal daily routine we are also trying to get things ready for Term 3.

We learn all about space and shape in Mathematics and we see shapes in everyday things. A great exercise for our Maths Book Cover for Term 3 therefore was to create our own colourful pictures by cutting and pasting shapes from bright sheets of paper. What creative designs we came up with!

Lots of colours to choose from

Careful design work here

My teacher loves my gorgeous giraffe

This is so much fun

Lovely work, Birthday Girl

I’m done with my Space Scene!

I am proud of my work

Paper tearing is an excellent activity for little fingers. It gets those tiny fine motor muscles in their three little pencil holding fingers fit for writing. They were absorbed and quiet for ages as they tore and pasted scales on their fish for their Term 3 Literacy Book Cover.

What a lot of colours to choose from

Very interesting fish!

Does this remind you of Nemo?

My fingers are working hard here!

How am I doing?

Sticky fingers – lovely fish

Next week there will be NO HOMEWORK – but please continue to read to and with your girls. Encourage Reading during the holidays too – shared reading I mean – it must be a pleasurable experience.

On Wednesday we have Parentline and I am looking forward to sharing with you how your daughters are progressing. Please be punctual so we can make the most of our 10 minute slots!

Back in the Classroom – Reading with and to your child

2014-06-13 | puppy1952

What is the most important thing a child learns when she goes to school? READING. We can’t get very far in the world without being literate and no matter how far we progress digitally – reading will always be a skill we require. The rate at which a child learns to read differs greatly and in a Grade One class it is possible to have children on six or seven different levels. The challenge for the teacher is to keep them all interested and keen to read with enjoyment.

At school we concentrate on teaching reading skills – decoding, encoding, sight words, using contextual cues, phonic cues, picture cuest etc. We use a graded Reading Scheme. Each level has one ‘Primer’ and three shorter supplementary readers with the same vocabulary plus a few new words thrown in. We keep the children at a particular level until they know the vocabulary out of context before moving them on to the next level. In addition to the books in the Reading Scheme we allow them to take other children’s books home. These have been roughly graded to fit in with the scheme book level but of course they too will have unseen vocabulary in them. Sometimes a long story can be very easy. Sometimes a short story can be quite challenging. The thickness of the book doesn’t necessarily determine how difficult the words are to read. The aim is simply to expose the children to the written word and for them to enjoy books.

How did the pioneers of old teach their children to read? They usually had only one book – The Holy Bible. Quite a daunting book to use as a primer! Yet they did. How did they manage? They read it to their children. The stories became familiar. Eventually the children started to recognise words as their parents read to them. They read together until the child could read on her own. So don’t be afraid to expose your child to a book that might be too difficult for her to read on her own. Share the reading with her. Introduce her to different authors. Talk about the cover, the title and the pictures. Get her to anticipate what will happen next. Discuss the message or moral of the story. Ask questions like What does this story teach us? How else could it have ended? Which was your favourite part? What did you like about the story? What didn’t you like about the story? It will depend on your child how much you discuss the story. Keep it simple and fun.

Often a parent might say – My child is reading her book – but she doesn’t really know the words – she reads off by heart. Don’t worry – this is part of the process. Let your child read the same book as often as she wants to but insist that she points to the words as she reads. Eventually those words will become so familiar that she will recognise them in other contexts. Remember too that reading to your child is more important than your child reading to you. You should be reading to her every single day. It should become a ritual – before bed is a good time – a wonderful way to get her settled for the night. Sit with you child in such a way that she can see the words as your read. Point to the words as you read and even allow her to read the easy ones if she wants to. Getting her to guess what the last word in the sentence is, is also excellent. Part of reading is inferring what the word could be. I never correct a child is she reads a word that is different but means the same as the one in the sentences. E.g. if she reads boy for lad – it’s okay – she has the sense of the sentence correct.

Some parents are worried that their children are reading books that are too easy or not challenging enough. Your child might bring home a book that is very short or easy. Remember that books sent home are to be enjoyed with your child. Sometimes they might be easy – sometimes a bit more challenging. If they’re too difficult let her read what she can and you read the difficult words with her. Once again – point to the words as you read. Discuss the story and help her anticipate what might happen next. If it is too easy and she reads it effortlessly in five minutes and then doesn’t bring another one home for a few days – don’t hesitate to read from your own book shelves or from the library. What is important is that your child is not only reading but being read to as well, the latter being the most important.

Here is a link to an earlier post regarding Reading to Children

https://puppy1952.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/back-in-the-classroom-reading-to-children/

Reading is not of course the only thing we learn at school. Number work is also important. We have been having fun with Mathematics and Money has been on our minds. It is amazing how money helps to teach number concepts. In the good old days I used to bring real money into the classroom but there is little you can buy with coins these days and credit cards have taken over so I don’t usually have denominations of R100 and R200 lying around in my wallet! But there is some very realistic pretend money which works just as well! So we have been playing with that. A good chart also helped and the girls were pretty good at pointing out the different coins and note. Great fun was had making a ‘coin’ die although there was some frustration when some of the little fingers couldn’t quite manage to glue it together. Luckily the more adept ones were willing to help!

What can we buy for R1,00?

Not even the tooth fairy brings 5c coins anymore!

R5 is a bit more valuable.

R50 in my birthday card would be okay!

A R200 note is the biggest amount – Just the right amount for a clever girl!

Two like this will be okay for this amazing lass.

Making the die cube

I’m ready to cut it out.

Today we had our Grade One cake sale. It was lovely to see that the girls were very aware of how much their money could buy! They spent their coins wisely and came back to class on a phenomenal sugar high! Who was the parent that sent those toffee apples! I’m not sure how much we made – but everything went! Thanks to the moms who baked, those who sent donations and the three fabulous ladies who did the selling! You were awesome and I didn’t even have to miss my break!

My R10 can get me quite a bit

Now what shall I buy

What lovely treats

I am going on a sugar high!

Yummy Toffee Apple

They were a hit!

The Boys and Me at False Bay Ecology Park

2014-06-08 | puppy1952

Temperatures have been hovering between 8 and 16 here in chilly Cape Town this week. Today though we had sunshine and it was a tad warmer. Earl had a fishing date with a friend and after doing a number of chores in town I really felt the need to get my teenage grandsons out of the house and into Nature.

Isn’t it amazing that you can go to the same place many times but each time it’s different. The light was good for photography and I gave Jay (16) my ex-camera, a Canon Powershot SX30IS and Josh and I used my Powershot SX50HS.

Black-winged stilt by Jay

Purple Swamphen by Jay

Flamingos

Black-headed Heron with an snack by Jay

Black-head heron – Jay

Egyptian Goose – Josh

Egyptian Geese

Hadeda Ibis – Josh

Cape Teal

Little Grebe

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Jay

Josh in front

We always look out for the Spotted Eagle-owls in their usual spot and today Jay and Josh found them easily. They were in the open, woke up and stared at us, preened a bit and then went back to sleep. We managed to get a few reasonable photographs.

Sleepy Head

Ho Hum

What are you looking at

Wink Wink

The African Fish Eagle is occasionally seen at The False Bay Ecology Park and today we were lucky enough to catch sight of two. I alerted the boys to one was flying ahead of the car when they yelled – Gran – look – there’s one next to us with prey! It was not easy to focus the camera but I got a very poor shot of it with a mongoose in its talons! It scattered the birds on the mudflats including a number of Spur-winged geese then settled on a mound some distance away.

Poor Mongoose

Fish Eagle

Fish Eagle – Jay

He flew off over the next pond, settled in a tree and then flew off again. We went in hot pursuit of a better photograph.

The Boys hoping to spot the Fish Eagle

Finally it was time to leave. Last shot of a male Cape Shoveller.

The boys agreed the excursion had been most worthwhile!

Back in the Classroom – A week of short days

2014-06-08 | puppy1952

The older children have been writing what used to be called exams. We call it Assessment Week and our learners write papers which form part of their term mark. During this week school closes an hour and a quarter earlier. The staff are then given a delicious lunch to build up their strength for marking. Everybody including the foundation phase staff and Gap students assist. At this school we believe in sharing the load. I enjoy it because it’s great to see how past learners are doing and it enriches bonds with my colleagues some of whom I do not have much contact with during the rest of the term.

Having a shorter day has forced us in the Foundation Phase, finished with our own assessments, to fit everything in before 1:00 p.m! The colder weather has certainly helped with this as the children have not complained about shortened outdoor exercise time! At this time of the year the little ones really start taking off. They now have enough Reading and Writing skills to begin to write their own creative sentences. Seeing that first tentative “all on my own” sentence on the page is one of the great thrills of teaching Grade One. We teach them to hunt for words they cannot spell. They find these words in their Reading word lists, the THRASS chart and around the classroom. When writing a story they try out their sentences on a rough sheet of paper first. When they get stuck they may ask the teacher for help and she will either write the difficult word for them or guide them to where they can find it for themselves. They also use their THRASS skills to build three letter words. They get really excited when they find how many words they can actually manage on their own.

Finding a word on the THRASS chart

Let me think about this

Now to draw the picture

I did it!

Yes – the girls are really surprising me in every aspect of their progress – Reading Writing and Mathematics. Keep it up, girls. You’re doing so well!

Doing our Mind Moves before a Writing lesson

Doing our Finger Exercises before a Writing lesson

Mind Moves to wake up the brain

Let’s get started

Posture perfect – Pencil Grip right!

Two Visits to False Bay Ecology Park

2014-06-01 | puppy1952

One of my favourite spots to visit in Cape Town is the False Bay Ecology Park. I have been there twice in the past seven days and have included photos from both visits in this blog.

This afternoon Earl and I were accompanied by two friends, Cheryl and Dot. The latter is a beginner and after we’d met up with some others girls at our monthly breakfast club, she asked if I would take her bird watching. Cheryl was also able to come along so I persuaded Hubby to drive us, picked them up at Cheryl’s home and we headed to our favourite spot.

The weather at this time year is chilly but also changeable so we were not too sure what we might see. Last Sunday there was very little but today was more productive although it was cold and windy.

Ever present are the beautiful Greater Flamingos

The pelicans were chilling on a distant bank.

My favourite ducks – they’re so photogenic

Cape shovellers taking to the water – all male except the one with the brown eye

A patient black-headed heron in the water

and out

A pretty little Black-winged Stilt

A Little Egret skulking in the reeds

A small flotilla of Littel Grebe (Dabchicks)

A small flotilla of Little Grebe (Dabchicks)

Here is a picture from last Sunday’s visit – a malachite kingfisher

An active, tiny bird – finally settled for a reasonable shot

A s silly moorhen impersonating a songbird!

A silly moorhen impersonating a songbird!

An African Pipit looking handsome

The purple swamphen (gallinule) is common at FBEP but tends to be elusive in the reeds. I am usually lucky and almost every time I visit I see at least one. Dot was very keen to get to see this lovely bird and I promised her we would. She missed the first one which was a bit far off and then decided to disappear before we could focus her attention to it. The second one was also hiding but Earl moved the car and we all got an excellent view of him showing off his very long and wide spread toes.

First glimpse of the colourful bird

Climbing up the reeds

Higher – Look at those toes!

Because of the very windy conditions many species of bird were congregated on Pond P2 which was slightly more sheltered. There were hundreds of yellow-billed duck, Cape shovellers, sacred ibis, stilts, avocets, Egytian Geese and Spur-winged geese amongst others.

Spur-winged goose with Sacred Ibis

While we were watching the frantic activity of the birds Dot called our attention to a small bird of prey flying at great speed and scattering a flock of common starling. It was a flash of rufous dashing just above the reeds – too fast for us to track. But then we saw it perched in a tree. Waving reeds make it difficult to focus unless you have a really fancy camera so Earl’s resulting pics were not particularly clear. Here is the best one from a bad bunch of a rufous-chested sparrowhawk.